Natalia Michalak M171297 Page 1 of 5

Natalia Michalak

M171297

Artist and Repertoire Management

M1AR1

Assessment 1: A&R Critique (50%) – 1,500 words

07.07.2019
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Sigrid is an emerging Norwegian singer-songwriter. She is only 22 years

old and she’s already an awarded and well recognized artist in Europe. She is a pop
artist, very proud of the genre and eager to produce electro-pop and synth-pop tunes.
Her songwriting skills are exceptional. Lyrics and marketing material promote her as
a very raw, pure and innocent person. As a singer, Sigrid is very successful in using
many different voice types and shades in a short part of a song. Just in one verse and
chorus she can use 14 different voice textures, changing them every half word or every
word. It makes her songs sound very rich and interesting. She has released her first
album on the 1st March 2019 called ‘Sucker punch’. From A&R perspective, she is
a great artist to work with. Despite young age (her career started when she was 16), she
is very driven, hardworking and focused. Already a formed artist, who knows what she
wants to deliver.

Originally, she did not plan a music career. It seemed to her too flaky. The first
song that she had written was for a school assignment to improve her final grade. The
second song she had written, because she wanted to get on stage. Her brother had
a band and told her he can get her on stage to perform one tune, if she performs
an original. Therefore, the drive for songwriting came to her through the love
of performance. When she was 16, she had recorded and released a song called “Sun”
that become her national breakthrough. In the result she got signed to Petroleum
Records and performed at festivals. She was promoted more like an indie artist. In 2016
she signed with Island Records and released her first EP that was a success in Norway,
Australia and UK. By now she’s released two EPs (“Don’t kill my vibe” and “Raw”),
a couple of singles (the strongest single is “Strangers”), a promotional single
(“Everybody knows”) and recently – her first album – “Sucker Punch”.

According to interview with Sigrid, she prefers to write her songs in studio during
a recording session. This is how most of her songs came to life. Her productions are
mostly energetic pop, electro-pop and synth-pop, but she also has some slower ballads
up her sleeve (for example “Dynamite”). The main focus in her recordings is voice, and
the most extreme example of that is the song from her second EP, called ‘Raw’.
In regards to lyrics, Sigrid says that she writes the truth, but even so, she never
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completely exposes herself. She shows the audience a tiny part of who she is in contrary
to all that she is. Her songs are as pure and fun as her image of and innocent teenager,
which really suits her. Sigrid mentions that she always chooses the songs which she can
comfortably sing, with a peace of mind.

Her first album, “Sucker Punch,” was met with positive reviews from music
critics. Exploring both mainstream and indie pop musical styles, the album topped the
Norwegian albums chart in its first week, while also reaching the top five in Ireland,
Scotland, and the United Kingdom, also attaining modest positions in other European
countries. In terms of singles selection, out of six songs chosen to promote the album,
four have become very successful. They are: "Strangers," "Dynamite," "Don't Kill My
Vibe," and “Sucker punch”. Her repertoire is often energetic and on occasion – gentle,
but usually very positive. She’s got a beautiful voice that is the main focus in her
recordings. Many American singers these days often implement trap in their
productions. But mainstream is not the case for Sigrid. She chooses more upbeat
anthemic sound with repetitive and catchy refrains. Her music is very good for festivals.

When it comes to the artwork, Sigrid is all about contrast between happy colours,
exposing her no-make-up young face and brown long hair. Pictures are simple, almost
raw. Sigrid looks pure, with plain clothing (almost no patterns and prints) focused
on colours and contrasts between them. She always poses fully dressed, not revealing
her body, covering full legs and her whole body up till neck. Very rarely she shows up in
a dress, almost never. It suits promoting her as an innocent teenager. Her videos and
pictures often focus on Sigrid’s signature beautiful brown hair – always brushed and let
down. To make the hair pop out on the captures, Sigrid often wears clothes of the same
colour as the background. This trick gives the viewer focus on her beautiful face and
dark long hair. The colours chosen for the clothing and the background, are often very
defined, such as: red, yellow, blue or green, in a vivid tone. These techniques can be
noticed in most of her videoclips. Just to give an example, the single from Sigrid’s first
EP – “don’t kill my vibe” shows beautifully the colours contrast and Sigrid’s hair
popping out. Another repetitive feature are children-friendly locations: school, waiting
room, supermarket, neighbourhood, etc. The use of yellow, green, red and blue with
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glitter, brings out contrasts but also makes the videoclip look like a program for
children. It makes Sigrid look even more innocent – if that is even possible. The artwork
is not very mainstream, in fact it is pretty unusual, which gives Sigrid a bit of a twist in
her pop productions. In videoclip to song ‘don’t feel like crying’ there are captures where
she looks through a painted glass of an aquarium, and it makes her look like a painting.
This capture is ‘too artsy’ for a mainstream pop video with choreographed dance, which
reminds a viewer of her indie past. The last thing I’d like to mention here is her website
– thisissigrid.com. It looks like a collage of colourful pictures and stickers. As you move
through the website, you can see some of them fully, some partially and some not at all.
The whole experience is a bit messy and sweet – again pretty childish and modern at the
same time. The pictures that are only partially revealed add a bit of mystery.

Despite the young age, Sigrid has got a history of nominations and awards. Only
a year after joining the Island Records, she has won the Newcomer of the Year 2017
award in Norway. In 2018 she has won another four awards: “the Emerging Artists –
Norway”, “BBC - Sound of 2018”, “Spellemannprisen’17” (Newcomer of the year &
Gramo scholarship) and finally “Song of the year – P3 Gull” (Music show in Norway) for
her single “Strangers”. As mentioned earlier, she has recorded a cover of Cohen and
Robinson’s song “Everybody knows” which was placed in the successful American movie
about superheroes – “the Justice League”. Apart from that, her song, “Don’t kill my
vibe” was placed in the game “The Sims 4: Parenthood”. Her strategy for now, would be
expanding to international market as a pure singer-songwriter – Sigrid. Currently she is
touring with Maroon 5 as their support act getting more exposure around Europe and
North America. Regarding her future goals, she’ll work to become the most recognizable
young female singer-songwriter in Europe and winning MTV Europe Music Award.

Her likely budgets are difficult to estimate as her fame grows very fast, I suppose
her budget changes quickly. But just as an example, most of her videoclip are low
budget. “Don’t kill my vibe” was recorded within 1 day. Roughly estimating it would cost
somewhere around $3500-$6000. At the lowest price the cost would split as below:
camera man $400, stage setup at the ocean (rental and handwork) $700, costumes
rental $300, choreographer $300, video producer $400, make-up artist $200, costume
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organizer $200, transport $200, catering $200, montage $600. The majority of her
recordings are one-room recordings, where budget would be below $2000. However,
her promotional single video, “Sucker punch”, from recently released album, was
recorded in multiple locations, with dancers and a big crew. The Island Records must
have assigned her a bigger budget for that. My estimation is approximately 35-40k,
which shows Sigrid’s big growth.

In terms of her next album, I would keep the artist raw and pure identity, but
maybe I would drastically change the colors. I would release black and white artwork
with blue jeans and red lips. More mature look, still simple and not revealing. In terms
of the songs style, I would keep the same electro-pop genre, while encouraging more
groove and backbeat, maybe more gangster. I think the artist has that gangster style
inside. Perhaps I would save one song and record it with a quiet esthetic singing,
instrumental light background on piano, to maintain that indie vibe.